Europe close: Stocks slip as euro jumps after Yellen speech

European stocks finished the week on a down note after the head of America's central bank failed to stoke interest in the US dollar, sending the single currency vaulting higher.

At the closing bell, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was lower by 0.12% or 0.44 points at 374.07, with the German Dax lower by 0.11% or 12.89 points alongside it to 12,167.94 and the Cac-40 giving back 0.17% or 8.80 points to 5,104.33.

Although she had been expected to tread a fine line, in the inaugural speech at the Federal Reserve bank of Kansas City's Jackson Hole economic symposium, Janet Yellen made no mention of monetary policy nor of current valuations in stockmarkets.

That saw the single currency jump 0.7% against the US dollar to 1.1881 pending a speech from European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi scheduled for 2000 BST.

On the economic front, the IFO institute reported that its business confidence index for Germany dipped to 115.9 for August from 116 in the prior month, but nevertheless came in ahead of expectations for a reading of 115.5.

Furthermore, the expectations subindex derived from the same survey pushed up to 107.9 in August from 107.3 in the month before, beating forecasts for a drop to 106.8.

Commenting on the IFO numbers, Claus Vistesen, chief Eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "We really only care about the expectations index in this survey, so our interpretation is that this report points to improving business cycle conditions in Germany, albeit marginally given the already brisk pace in GDP growth."

Earlier in the day, figures from the Ministry of Finance confirmed that Germany's gross domestic product expanded by 0.6% over the three months to June, led by growth in private consumption and government spending, confirming a preliminary estimate.

In parallel, INSEE's French consumer confidence index dipped from a reading of 104.0 for July to 103 in August.

Company news-flow was light on the ground at the end of the week.

However, investors took note of Adidas boss Kasper Rorsted who sounded a cautiously optimistic note, telling the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that while 2017 would be a record year, later ones would see ups and downs.

"There will be years that are better and others that are worse," he said.

Rating agency Moody's gave Lufthansa shares a lift, upgrading its rating on the carrier's long-term debt to Baa3 with a 'stable' outlook.